I have no education or experience in interpreting but I speak English and German, starting to learn Russian, I’m wondering if I would qualify for this M.A.? it’s unclear from their website whether they need applicants to have perfect command of three languages, or just two.

I (post-linguistics MA) am finishing a conference poster.

It’s in sociolinguistics/translation studies, and I have examples comparing how things are (not) translated across different languages. For a specific work, I include both the actual (ie officially licensed) translation and a plausible-but-not-used translation.

Hypothetical examples:

JP: My Sensei is Crazy
*My Teacher is Crazy

KR: My Teacher is Crazy
*My Seonsaengnim is Crazy

I currently am using an asterisk for the “not used” translation, but I am not sure if there’s a better symbol. The asterisked examples are not grammatically “incorrect”, and there’s nothing within the grammar or language that would “prevent” those examples, but they were not ultimately chosen. Would a # be better? Something else?

Not sure how to indicate “the translators didn’t go with this translation even though it’s a perfectly fine and is even used for other languages”.

Thank you.

Hi everyone!

I received a job offer on email via translatorscafé.com. The company seems to at least exist, but the offer includes payment only after completion of the project, and the channels of communication are Gmail and Telegram (which is, as we all now, a scammer's favourite place).

Even if you haven't, I would still appreciate any tips to check whether it is a scam or not.

Thank you!

I'm 29, just had my first child, and my career is dying. Currently on maternity leave and have two "clients" (agencies) left. It's dire. I have a top-class BA and MA in Translation Studies. I have no clue where to pivot to, and I'm looking for inspiration.

The thought of working a 9–5 is honestly quite scary, especially now I want to be able to spend time with my kid!

Would love to hear what everyone is doing/planning!

hi, i got a message from Mrs_Helen on a tutoring website. she told me that they are looking for tranlators to complete a project and pay 2000$ if i get the job done in 5days. its a 50page translation job. They do not make upfront payments and she actually told me that the funds are not yet accessible when i told them that i dont want to pay any withdrawal money because i made a research about their company.

this is their policy. when i told them that i dont want to pay anything, they told me that there are others who had done the job and got paid after paying the withdrawal money. btw they asked if this is my first translation job, which is kinda suspicious to pay 2000$ for someone whos a newbie :(

"Our company policies are as follows:

1. We do not make upfront payments.

2. All projects must be completed within the specified timeframe.

3. To receive payment, your account must be linked to our company's payment portal.

4. During the project duration, we require exclusivity, meaning you must work solely with our company until the project is completed.

5. Payment will be made immediately upon completion of your job.

6. Please refrain from bidding on additional jobs until our project is complete. We require maximum concentration on this project.

We hope you understand and will comply with these policies."

When saving the in-progress translation, do you chose to save it to a hard drive, the computer, or do you choose online storage?

Do translation companies share interpretator information with each other?

After logging in, only “Europe” appears under “Choose a workspace to open,” and clicking it doesn't take me to that page. 

Am I the only one who has a problem connecting it for now?

Many thanks in advance.

Hi, anyone here working as a freelance linguist (specifically, translating subtitles), and submitting their invoice through the Vendor Hub platform?

Does Transperfect really pay? Do you receive your payment on time? If not, how long is the delay or how many days after the invoice due date should I expect to receive the payment instead?

I know they have a net45 payment terms, but it's been over 45 days. I've also submitted a ticket already.

Sorry, I'm just anxious and worried that I won't actually get paid after all the work I did. Times are hard and I'm having problems w/ my main job right now. If anyone has any experience w/ Transperfect, I'd appreciate any advice, etc. Thank u!

I tried to translate the French "ventilateur", meaning fan, as in the air fan (ventilator). When put into Spanish on Google Translate, it gave me the Spanish "admirador", like fan, as in follower (admirer). This makes me think Google put the French "ventilateur" into the English "fan", and then the Spanish "admirador", assuming the other meaning.

Hello everyone,
I’m a 23-year-old student from Algeria, and I’m considering studying for a Bachelor’s degree in **Arabic–French–English Translation**.
My long-term goal is to continue my studies and eventually build a career in Europe, especially in countries like Germany, Italy, Poland, or France.
Before making my decision, I’d love to hear from people who live or work in Europe.
Is an Arabic–French–English Translation degree valuable in today’s European job market?
What kinds of jobs can graduates with this degree typically get?
Would I need to learn the local language (German, Italian, Polish, etc.) to have good career opportunities?
Has AI significantly reduced the demand for translators, or is there still a solid market for qualified professionals?
If you had the choice today, would you still study translation, or would you choose a different degree?
I’d really appreciate any advice or personal experiences, especially from translators or people working with languages.

Recently I have noticed that the proofreading jobs I receive through agencies contain a TransCheck report with notes from a "TransIQ" engine. It supposedly adds valuable comments with corrections to translations, but most of the time it is just pure bullshit or incorrect suggestions. It either completely misunderstands the context or adds "corrections" that is the exact same thing but maybe one or two filler words added. Is anyone else encountering this? Have you been able to submit feedback for them to stop using it? It is honestly just adding another unnecessary step where you have to add comments about why it is wrong.

Just an FYI - this thread is for all of us who are sick and tired of our translation jobs and just need to get it out of our systems. There's nothing wrong with being a translator! Sometimes it's just the circumstances or the environment we're in.

I've been working as an in-house patent translator for over a decade. The job is draining me. I mainly do very monotonous and tedious work that I have zero interest in. I try to stay focused, but it's hard.

Now add automatic translation to the mix. Ngl, it does quite a good job in my niche. Obviously, you still need to proofread it. But man, some of the less obvious mistakes are sooo easy to completely miss. There's this paradox where it does help you work faster, but it can also drive you nuts with all the little details you have to check.

Clients. I don't deal with them directly since I'm not a freelance translator, but my company expects me to explain any single doubt or question a client might have. Sometimes they even have the audacity to say they found mistakes, and when we check, there aren't any. And my bosses... They freaking know nothing! We just keep wondering how the company remains successful, I guess they were lucky to build it during a time where there was little to no competition and landed on good clients.

Would love to hear if anyone else is going through the same!

Stay Away from https://www.acolad.com/

I got an email from them mentioning I am selected for a project, the payment terms, and that it will be paid within 45 days of completing the project.

After 30 days, they sent me a very long process of sending invoices, etc. I think it is a technique to drop the payment request.

I completed every process. Now, when I ask for an update, they say it is 45 days from sending the Invoice.

Then they sent me an email saying that the threshold is 300 USD to avoid unnecessary bank fees. So I asked why this was not communicated before starting the project. Also, I have provided a local US account, and I have informed them that if they want, I can provide a local UK or EU account as well. So what fees are you talking about?

From then it is dead silence. Officially, 45 days from sending the invoice have passed.

Not even 1 response.

So, whomever is looking to work with them be ready to spend atleast 1 year chasing them or risking not to get anything.

Now that most of the work turned to MTPE, I am really curious about the economics behind it. Unless it is wildly profitable I cant find any reason for agencies and companies to use machine translation. MT is not faster or better. The total duration of the task pipeline is more or less the same. The quality is definitely low and despite the advancements in AI tech I think it's getting worse. And it's not learning, I am working with several clients and getting MTPE tasks for more than 2 years, the AI is still doing the same mistakes, doesnt care about TMs or terms etc.

So the only advantage must be the cost. But I really how much of a cost difference there is. I am not sure if anyone can really answer that here. But AI is not free and as far as I now it's not that cheap. How much do agencies/companies pay for machine translation models? And if the formula in the title is actually true (it must be true considering the trend), how much of a difference do you think is there.

Good day sirs. Im writing this not because I seek help, but more like to share the grim situation im currently being in.
I've spent 4 years in my university, that specialized precisely in language studies, all 4 years not a single native word was spoken, English\French and English\French alone. Need to say, its also "exchange" type of uni, so I also have a lot of practice.
Im not saying that I brag how awesome I am, I still dont know a lot in English, but I try to be better (vocab expansion mostly). I do love languages, I feel like they are quite easy to me, I can orient in grammar with no significant difficulties, etc. Again, I DO love languages. But I cant stress the disappointment enough, how lamentable it is.
I live in Russia, and with all things considered, which we wont name here. no official translation, like it used to, happens. Never, I guess. So all I've left are some independent\enthusiast non commercial groups who still want to keep translating games.
My dream, since the day I started learning English and French (And I think its like 15 years from now, Im 25 for the matter), was to translate either movies or games. But translating movies kinda fell by the wayside by its own, because there was literally no way to get in that branch as there are only 2-3 giant medias that do it and obviously they are not interested in me. So now its only games. I always found its so captivating, so breathtaking, so... Beautifull. You dont just translate the words, you put the depths into one's words, the passion, the love to what you do. Maybe Im overreacting, yes, but that game translation to me is like making completely another story to what its originally is, through words only.
But why do I call it grim? Because its been over 2 years now, I adressed all the translation groups I could find, everyone rejected me. I had an experience of translating minor modification to some games, some subtitles creation, I singlehandedly translate Fallout London to russian right now, but... I still want the work to be big, you know? Cyberpunk level of greatness. But all this goes south fast, because noone needs me. I think I sitll have that desire to do things but as the days pass by I feel more and more like giving up...

I have been applying to a few platforms but feel like translation and interpretation has fallen so low in demand (i believe because of AI?). I already work at MITC but super satisfied with the pay rate (15 usd per hour). Native Tajik and Russian speaker. Native-level English. Got my education in English. 1 year of Legal translation and interpretation. over a year of OPI Medical Interpreting and have a Propio certificate in medical interpretation. Where can I find an agency that could pay at least $20+/hour?

Dear fellow copywriters, translators, proofreaders, etc…

I was wondering if anyone here has been dealing with a similar situation. Well, I reckon many of you have, lol 😊

I’ve been working as a Czech freelance content writer, editor, Czech-English translator, proofreader, and an English tutor for nearly 15 years now. It comes as no surprise that I’ve been facing a decrease in demand for my services in the last 2–3 years due to the rise of AI. So far, I have been coping reasonably well thanks to a few well-paid projects that helped me keep my head above water. Despite this, I have to face the fact that the demand seems to be lower and lower, and new collaborations are infrequent while the competition is quite high (partly owing to the economic boost in the digital market during the pandemic).

Summer has always been a low season in my field, and this one is no exception. It has hit me harder though because I had been travelling in May/June, allowing myself to get some proper rest after a long time working, and I happened to be hard up... My financial reserves are slowly shrinking and it is getting harder for me to make ends meet. This has resulted in what I named the ‘freelancer’s summer blues’ 😊.

Who else here is having a difficult time this summer dealing with too much spare time and hardly any income? 😊 Would you like to share what has helped you deal with it, whether these are new hobbies, job opportunities, investments, creative projects… – you name it?

I am trying to get busy by learning/practising foreign languages, improving my chess and guitar skills, going hiking, to name a few ways… 😊

Tell me about the dictionaries on phones that helps to dictionaries on phones that helps us while we are translating...

I use hans wher, lanelexicon, mariam websiter, English phrasal verbs

So what did you use to translate from Arabic to English and from English to Arabic

I was wondering if anyone uses this for studying. I'm a beginner learner and trying to find a method of studying. I feel like this could be a hybrid of mind map/feynmen technique. And like if I wanted to remember something I'd just write it down like this and then say it out loud in more details.... excuse my English

I’m 18 planning to head into translation for a bachelors perhaps even a masters, I rn know three languages, kurdish being my native language, English which I am strong at (years of private English schools) and a good enough set of Arabic, should I do this?

Hi, Im a 17 year old aspiring for a career in translation, but seeing the posts here everyday about the industry being terrible I am obviously worried about my future, I have no idea what the industry will be in 5 years when I graduate, much less when Im like 40 and I dont want to find myself without a job. That said, I dont really have many other career options. Originally I wanted to pursue education but thats just as badly paid. My other interests? visual arts and literature. Not very lucrative either.

I am based in Mexico city, Ive grown up with a bilingual education so english and spanish are both easy, and both my parents speak nahuatl and have made sure to teach me, so I can also speak that. Ive been learning german for two years and chinese for one year. My german is around a b2 level and I recently passed my hsk 3 exam which is supposed to be b1 but its more like an a2 if anything. I still have a year left to choose my major and to get better at german and chinese, plus Im on track to get a scholarship to study chinese for a year in China, which should get me more time to get my languages to a high enough level to choose both german and chinese as my third language in my major (for context my schools translation major has english as a requirement and lets you choose one of five languages to learn from zero and then eventually start translating. you can choose to take more than one language if you take a proficiency exam) so ideally I would graduate being able to translate in english, spanish, chinese and german (nahuatl not included because its not offered as a language in my major). My school also makes you choose an area of specialization from your third semester, and I will probably go for a legal translation specialization, plus I want to take some optional interpreting classes also offered at my school.

That being said, what other skills should I learn? Are all my efforts hopeless? I was adviced by my family to choose a major like international relations or law, but politics in my country are beyond terrible and I dont want to work in that sector. Law is terrible too, everyone has terrible unethical practices. Hospitality seems like an option but Im not sure what major would help me get into that sector, plus Im not super interested in it. I would kill myself if I had to be an engineer or something math related and seeing blood makes me nauseous, so I dont think I could realistically go into a STEM field.

What can I do to make sure I stand out as a translator? Whats a skill youve found yourself needing when entering the job market? Are there any other career options you think I should look into?

All inputs are appreciated!!!